Vertical retort oven



1929. J. V AN ACKEREN 1,738,743 H VERTICAL RETORT OVEN Filed March 20,1926 s sheets sheet l INVENTOZ 2 m PM A TTORNEYS.

Dec. 10, 1929. J. VAN ACKEREN VERTICAL RETORT OVEN 1926 5 Sheets-Sheet 2Filed March 20 77 INVE 1 R. m wat ATTORNEYS.

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V we Dec. 10, 1929. J. VAN ACKEREN VERTICAL RETORI' OVEN Filed March 20,1926 :5 Sheets-Sheet s INV TOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Dec. 10, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOSEPH VAN acxmum, OFPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOIR TO THE KOPPEBS COMPANY, OFPITTSBURGH, PENNsYl-vANlA A CORPORATION OF PENIQ'SYLVANIA VERTICALRETORT OVEN Application filed March 20, 1926. SerialR'o. 96,238.

This invention relates in general to improvements of general utility inconstruction of coke ovens and more particularly to imof said sectionsso that should there be any leakage through the joint, such leakage canbe readily stopped by inting up the outer faces of the joint. A urtherimportant object of the invention is the provision and location of sucha joint so' that there will be no possible chance of leakage from aregenerator chamber into a coking chamber or from a coking chamber intoa regenerator chamber; the proyision and arrangement of such a joint,between sections of the structure, which is so located and arranged thatno great amount of brickwork or structure need be torn out in order toreach and stop a leak through the joint, and the invention has forfurther objects such other improvements and advantages in constructionand operation as may be found to obtain in structure hereinafterdescribed or claimed.

In the accompanying drawin s, forming a part of this specification, ands owing, for purpose of exemplification, a preferred form and manner inwhich the invention may be embodied and practiced, but without limit,ingthe claimed invention specifically to such illustrative instance orinstances Figure 1 is a composite horizontal sectional viewtaken in thedifierent horizontal planes of a vertical retort coking structureembodying the resent invention as indicated by the section ines BB, CC,and DD of Figs. 2 and Eli Fig.2 is a vertical sectional view taken onthe line 2--2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a composite vertical sectional view taken in differentvertical lanes as indicated by the section lines EE, G and HH of Figs. 1and 2.

In its present embodiment, the invention is incor orated in a verticalretort structure for pro ucing metallurgical coke, such as thatexemplified in my aforesaid copending application, Serial No. 684,342,filed January 4, 1924, for vertical retort structure, suc

structure being one that is especially designed for the employment ofthe combination oven principle involving the alternative use of anextraneously derived relatively lean gas, or with a relatively rich gasfor fuel. For convenience, the present invention will be described inconnection with such structure, The invention, however, is capable ofother valuable applications, for example, to apparatus generally usefulin the heat treatment of materials, or to constructions roviding forheating solely with. relatively can gas according to the gas ovenprinciple,

or to constructions providing for heating solely with relatively richgas according to the coke oven principle.

Referring to the drawin s, there are shown views of a vertical retortattery of the byproduct type, as hereinbefore mentioned. The verticalretort battery comprises in its construction a series of distillingchambers, such as the series 11 of vertically elongated retorts orcoking chambers, the retorts of the series being contiguous to theintermediate heating walls 12. The heating walls 12 form the side wallsof the respective retort chambers 11, both being preferablysubstantially rectangular in horizontal section and elongatedtransversely of the battery structure but relatively narrowlongitudinally of the battery, as shown in Fig. 1. The heating walls andthe retort chambers extend to a great height as compared with theirhorizontal dimensions, and the retorts 11 are tapered toward the top asshown in the section EE of. Fig. 3, to facilitate passa e of thematerial peing treated from top to ottom of the revort.

The series of retorts and corresponding intermediate heating walls areres ectively arranged and extend along one si e of the battery assembly,as shown in Fig. 1, whereas the rcgcnerators extend along the other sideof the battery assembly. The outer ends of the respective retorts aswell as the heating walls are closed by the side refractor. wallstructure, indicated at 15, and the ot or or inner ends of the saidheating walls and coking chambers are separated from the series ofregenerators by the interior refractory wall structure 16, as shown inFigs. 1 and 2. The outer ends of regenerators are closed by the siderefractory wall Structure 17.

The coal to be coked is charged into the upper ends of the retorts 11and the completed coke is discharged throughopenings at the bottom ofthe said retorts.

Because of the great height of the retorts as compared with theirhorizontal dimensions, the retort battery is preferably employed asa'continuous vertical retort, with consequent great capacity for cokeand byproduct production. Vhen so employed a continuous feed ofcarbonaceous materlal may be maintained through the retorts 11, withcontinuous discharge of the finished coke from the bottoms of suchretorts.

The heat for coking the charges of coal in the several retorts 11 isderived from the heating walls 12 corresponding to said retorts. Eachheating wall 12 is constituted of a plurality of upper flue sections 37and a.plurality of lower flue sections 38 and the former are connectedwith the latter in such manner as to form continuous vertical fluepassages extending from top to bottom of the heating walls, as is morefully and particularly described in my aforesaid application. Serial No.684,342, and to which attention is hereby expressly directed for moredetailed references as to construction and operation of such structure.and for details of the flue arrangement and-flow connections.

As shown in Fig. 2, the flue sections 37 and 38 are of substantiallyequal length, the flue sections 38 extending upwardly to a horizontalplane substantially midway the top and bottom of the heating Wall, andthe upper flue sections..37 extend from said flower flue sections 38 tothe top 39 of the battery structure. At their bottoms the lower fluesections 38 of each of the heating walls are respectivel connected byports 42 with a horizontal c annel 43 located in the bottom of theheating wall. The-horizontal channel 43 located in the bottom of oneheating wall is connected with the horizontal channel 43 of the nextadjacent heating wall by apassageway 44 which crosses around theintermediate retort chamber through the outer refractory wall structure15. By this arrangement the bottoms of the burning lower flue sections38 are connected with the bottomsof upflow, lower flue sections 38 inthe next adjacent heatin wall, by means of said passageways 44 whicconvey the waste gases from the former to the latter flue sections.

The regenerators 45 are located on that side of the battery opposite theretorts 11 and heating walls 12 and are separated from said retorts andheating walls by the interior Wall structure 16.

As shown in Fig. 1, the regenerators are located in a single seriesalong one side of the battery with the major vertical plane of theregenerators parallel to the major vertical planes of the retorts andheating walls. Operatively, the series of regenerators 45 is arrangedinto two groups R and S, each group comprisin four regenerators. Theregenerators of the group R alternate with the regenerators of the groupS, as shown in Fig. 1. When the several regenerators of the groups R areoperating for inflow, that is to say, for delivering preheated gaseousmedia to the fines of the heating'walls, the several regenerators of theother groups S are operating for outflow to extract heat from the gasesdischarged into the regenerators from the flues. battery, at the end ofeach operating period, the inflow regenerators become outflowregenerators and the outflow regenerators become inflow regenerators.

Each regenerator45 is preferably a high narrow upright chamber,substantially rectangular in horizontal cross section and containingopen brickwork or checker-work 46 having a sole channel 47 :underneaththe opening up into the checker-work. Advantageously, ledges 48 areprovided in the walls of the regenerators in order to support thecheckerbrick as a plurality of stacks of checkerbrick so that should itbe necessary toenter the regenerators the entire. amount-of checkerbrickneednot be torn out.

Each regenerator A whether of the group R '61" of the group S leads atits upper end into a duct 53, which duct 53 is directly connected withthe horizontal fiues 54 at the top of the heating Wall 11 correspondingto-said regenerator. In like manner, each regener- -ator P, whether ofthe group R or S, leads at its upper end into a duct 63 directlyconnected with the horizontal channel 64 at the top of the heating wallcorresponding to said regenerator.

Each heating wall 11,- has a pair of such horizontal channels 53 and 63leading respec 'tively from regenerators A and P of the groupcorresponding to said heating wall. The horizontal channel 53 of eachheatin wall is directly connected with the tops 0 the several upper fluesections by ports 55; and the horizontal channel 64 is likewise directlyconnected with-the tops ofsaid upper flue sections 37 by ports 65.

Connections are also provided for leading gaseous media, for instance,air and producer gas, from the tops of the inflow regenerators directlytothe tops of the lower flue sections 38 of the downflow operatingheating walls.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1 and 3, the

On reversal of the downbu rning lower horizontal channels 54 of eachheating wall are connected by a series of ducts 71 with a series ofvertical feed channels 72 located in the alternate bottle-bricks 73between the flue channels. Similarly the horizontal channels 64 of eachheating wall are connected by a series of ducts 81 with a series ofvertical feed channels 82 located in the bottle bricks '83 intermediatethe alternate bottle bricks 7 3. As shown in Fig. 2, the alternate feedchannels 72 and intermediate vertical feed channels 82 extend downthrough the bottle bricks to the bottoms of the upper flue sections 37and channels 72 and 82 of each adjacent pair are provided with ducts 74and 84 which converge into and through the nozzle blocks 41 at the topof the lower flue section 38. i

In operating with extraneously derived gas, such as producer gas, thestructure pro vides supply connections to the tops of each downburninlower flue sections 38 for permitting pro ucer gas and air regeneratorsP and A to" propagate additional flame in the flue sections. Any wastegases in the upper flue 37 together with the waste gases from the bottomof the lower flue sections 38, of the downburning heating walls, passthrough the ports 42 into the horizontal channels 43 in the bottoms ofthe downburning heating walls and thence through the cross-aroundpassages 44 into the similar channels 43 of the upflow operating heatingwalls. From the channels 43 of the upflow operating walls the wastegases pass through'the ports 42 and thence upwardly through the sections38 of said walls. At the tops of the lower flue-sections 38 the wastegases discharge through the said passages 40 and ducts 74 and 84 intothe upper flue sections 37 and feed channels 72 and 82, and passtherethrough and out at the tops of the upflow operating heating wallsinto the hori zontal channels 54 and 64 through which the waste gasesare conveyed to the waste as regenerators W W. Passing downwar 1ythrough the re 'enerators the waste gases heat up the checker rick forthe next inflow operating period of said regenerators.

Provision is made for operating the battery alternatively with arelatively rich gas, such as coke oven gas, and for supplying said gasto the tops of boththe up er sections 37 and the lower sections of t 1econtinuous downburning vertical flue channels. As shown in Fig. 3, thevertical coke oven gas ducts 91'lead through the top 39 of the batterystructure respectively into the tops of the upper flue section of eachheating wall.

Within each nozzle block 41 is a vertical coke oven gas duct 93 providedwith a nozzle 94 set into the tapered upper portion of the duct. Thevertical ducts 93 lead directly into the tops of the lower flue sections38 for the purpose of supplying coke oven gas lengthwise t rough. therespective heating for expansion, they will be subjected to stresses andstrains which might and can cause crackling and rupturing of the masonryof which they are constructed. .In accordance with the present inventionthe structures hereinbefore referred to are designed and constructed soas to constitute adjoining expansible sections which when expanded aresubstantially conti uous to each other with an expansion joint etweeneach section, said joint extending from the retort chambers 11 to theouter ends of the sections, so that should there be leakage through anyjoint the gas will escape to the outer atmosphere and so that such leakcan be readily stopped by pointing up the particular leaking joint fromnear the outer walls of the battery. Advantageously the battery is builtso as to be constituted of expansible sections 96, each con sisting of aflued heating wall 12 closed at one end by the refractory wall 15 and atthe other end by the interior refractorv wall 16 and regenerators 45,said sections being built adjacent each other so that the adjoiningsections together form coking chambers 11 between their respectiveheating walls 12. The regenerator end of each section 96 is connectedwith its adjoining section by "an expansion joint 97 extending from theretort 11 to the outer walls 15 and 17, said joints extending verticallyfrom the bottoms of the heating walls and regenerators to their tops.The adjacent surfaces of adjoining Walls 16 are connected by verticallyextending tongue and groove expansion joints 98 by reason of thevertical extending tongues 99 and 100 of one heating wall extending intovertically extending grooves 101 and 102'in an adjacent wall 16, andfrom there the joint extends in a strai ht line between the adjacentwalls 103 of a joining regenerator chambers. At the other end of theretort, the expansion joint is constituted of a staggered joint 104. Asthe brickwork is being laid to form the sections, spacing material,usually strawboard, is placed between adjacent sections to maintainsufficient space for expansion. After the sections are heated up thestrawboard disintegrates and permits the adjacent sections to makecontact with each other. The expanded tongue and groove joints 98 arefilled in with ,a filling material, preferably that material apparentthat the invention provides a novel expansion joint for such structuresthat may be readily sealed from the outside without requiring entry intothe regcnerator chambers and that there is no chance of-leakage of gasthrough any expansion joint from a retort into a regenerator chamber orfrom a regenerator chamber into a retort or any of the flues.

The invention as hereinabove set forth is embodied in particular formsbut maybe variously embodied within the scope ofthe claims hereinaftermade.

I claim:

1. In a coke oven structure, the combination of a row of sections; eachof said sections comprising a vertically fined heating wall, a wall atone lateral end of said heating wall, and walled regenerators individualto said heating wall and in communication with the flues therein; saidregenerators being arranged at the opposite end of said heating wall andhaving their side walls parallel with said heating wall; said sectionsbeing disposed adjacent each other and together forming vertical retortcoking chambers between the heating walls; each section being'connectedfor expansion with an adjacent section by an expansion joint extendingfrom the coking chamber to each of the outer ends of said section.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized by there being atongue and groove joint in said expansion joint.

3. In a vertical retort oven, in combination; a plurality of verticalcoking chambers; heating walls contiguous to said chambers andcomprising combustion fines; regenerators in communication with saidcombustion fines and individual to each of said heating walls andarranged at lateral ends thereof; and expansion jointsfextending throu hthe walls at each end of each coking cham er from the coking chambers tothe outside of the oven.

4. In a vertical retort battery, in combination a plurality of highnarrow retort chambers, each adapted to receive through its top a chargeto be coked and adapted to discharge through its bottom the cokedcharge; heating walls contiguous to said retort chambers andrespectively constituted of combustion flues; high narrow regeneratorsserving the fines of the heating walls respectively; channelscommunicably connecting the regenerators with the fines of theirrespective heat ing walls; and expansion joints in the walls of saidbattery, said joints extending from "gether forming a vertical retortbetween the each end of the retort chambers to the outside of thebattery.

5. In a coke oven structure, in combination: walls forming cokingchambers and having heating flues therein; individually regulableregenerators for the heating walls; duct means commu'nicably connectingthe regen: erators with the fines of said heating walls; duct meanscommunicably common to and connecting for flow a plurality of fines inone wall with a pluralitv of fines in another wall; and expansion jointsin the walls of the structure extending through walls betweenregenerator chambers from each coking chamber to the exterior of thestructure.

6. In a vertical retort oven structure, in combination: a group ofvertical coking chambers; fined heating walls contiguous to saidchambers; regenerators therefor and arranged alongside said group ofcoking chambers; and expansion joints extending through walls betweenregenerator chambers from the coking chambers to the outside of thestructure.

7. A structure as claimed in claim 6, characterized by the expansionjoints being staggered joints.

8. A structure as claimed "in claim 6, in whichthe regenerators are inadjrJ-ining sections each comprising a plurality ofregenerators, and inwhich the ex a'nsion' lQin-ts are between the walls. of ator sections. I

9. A vertical retort construction" comprising, in combination: aplurality of adjoining sections; each section comprising a flued heatingwall and walledregentemtom at one lateral end thereof and incommunication with a plurality of flues therein and an end wall at theopposite end' thereof; adjacent sections toheating walls'of saidsections, each section being connected with its adjoining section toaccommodate expansion and contraction by an expansion jointextending'from the retort to the outer walls of a plurality ofregenerators; and a cross-around duct in said end wall, said ductcommunicably connecting a plurality of fines in one of said heatingwalls with a plurality of fines in another of said heating walls.

10. In a coke oven structure, the combination of a row of sections; eachof said sections comprising a structural unit comprising a fined heatingwall, and walls at each end ofsaid heating wall; said sections beingdisposed adjacent each other and together forming vertical retort cokingchambers between the heating walls; each section being con nected forexpansion with an adjacent section by an expansion joint extendingthrough the walls at each end of the heating walls from the cokingchamber to the outer ends of said section adjoining regener- 11. Avertical retort construction comprising, in combination; a plurality ofad oining sections; each section comprising a structural unitcomprisingaflued hea wall and 5 walls at the opposite ends of saiheating wall; adjacent sections together forming a vertical retortbetweenthe heating walls of said sections, each section being connectedwith its adjoining section to accommodate ex ansion and contraction b anexpansion joint extending through ad acent walls at each end of theheatin walls from the retort to the outer ends of a jacent sections; anda cross-around duct in adjacent walls at one 15 end of the heatnigwalls,- said duct come municably connecting a plurality of the fluedheating walls.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

go a JOSEPHVAHIACKEBEN.

